Council Considers Good Cause

At last night's informal meeting, the Common Council took up the issue of the Good Cause Eviction Law. The law was enacted by the New York State Legislature in April. It automatically applies to New York City, but other municipalities in New York can opt in. So far, six have done so: Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, Ithaca, and Beacon--all with populations significantly larger than Hudson's. Beacon, which is the smallest of the six, has a population of 15,259 as compared with Hudson's 5,749. There are two parts of the law that can be determined by each individual city: the definition of small landlord and the definition of luxury apartment. How Hudson would define each of these was not discussed at last night's meeting.

Before the discussion began, three councilmembers recused themselves and left the building: Vicky Daskaloudi (Fifth Ward) and Rich Volo (Fourth Ward), both of whom are landlords, and Dominic Merante (Fifth Ward), who is a tenant and said he did not want to be involved in making a decision that might benefit him financially. During the discussion, Jennifer Belton (Fourth Ward) revealed that she was a landlord, but she would be exempt from the law because she rents one apartment in the building where she herself lives. 

Margaret Morris (First Ward) opened the discussion by saying that she was concerned the law would have negative impacts on tenants seeking apartments. She predicted that the law would be an incentive for landlords to set rents at the maximum amount to start with because rent increases are capped. She also predicted there would be no incentive for landlords to take a risk on a tenant because they would be entering into an agreement over which they had no control. For these reasons, she was not in favor of the law.

Morris also pointed out, "We do not know how many buildings [in Hudson] this [law] would apply to." Any building with income restrictions is exempt, as are buildings for which the certificate of occupancy was issued after January 1, 2009. It was suggested that a landlord could evade the law by taking a building off the market and rehabbing it to require a new certificate of occupancy. When asked about this possibility, Crystal Peck, counsel to the Council, said that litigation would define the specifics of this perceived loophole.

The Hudson critic who identifies himself as the Friendly Neighborhood Immigrant opined that "the law clearly is not designed for a city the size of Hudson." He said that Cambridge, Massachusetts, once had a similar law, but it destroyed the rental market, and the law was rescinded. He asked of the Council, "Why do you know better than Cambridge, Massachusetts?" He asserted, "In the long term, rent control harms those it is trying to help."

A representative of For the Many, the advocacy group that endorsed Claire Cousin in her unsuccessful run for State Assembly, maintained there was no evidence that the law would reduce the housing supply. He noted that it allows landlords to raise rents by 5 percent every year. He argued that the law gives tenants the right to ask for repairs and to make long-term plans without having to worry about where they will live. He also denied that the law would perpetually trap landlords in a lease. 

Morris took issue with the statement that the law does not lock landlords into a lease in perpetuity and reiterated that it would make it very difficult for someone to get into an apartment. Lola Roberts (Third Ward) defended the law, saying that it protects people already in apartments, alleging that "landlords kick people out for no reason."

The Friendly Neighborhood Immigrant suggested the law might harm older people and disabled people. Morris elaborated, saying landlords could reclaim a unit for personal use or for a family member unless the tenant is elderly or disabled. This, she suggested, would make people unwilling to rent to the elderly or disabled.

Peck commented, "It's going to take time for issues not clarified in the law to be clarified in the court."

Supervisor Linda Mussmann (Fourth Ward), who owns rental properties in Hudson, commented, "We don't know how many small landlords there are in Hudson." She further opined that the law "would certainly discourage people from being a landlord."

The meeting was adjourned before there was any discussion of what might constitute a "small landlord" or what percentage of fair market rent would exempt an apartment as "luxury"--the two aspects of the law that can be determined by individual municipalities opting in to the law. 

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